Just 12 days apart, two ugly incidents have ripped the lid off what many didn’t think they would be discussing at this stage of the season. On Feb. 9, Detroit Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart charged from the bench and got into a brawl with Charlotte Hornets players. It was chaotic, as punches flew and four players ended up being ejected. In the aftermath, the NBA handed down suspensions. Stewart was hit for seven games, Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabaté were hit with four games each, and Jalen Duren was hit with two. 

Then barely two weeks later, Memphis Grizzlies guard Scottie Pippen Jr, fresh off making a late 3-pointer, got blindsided from behind by Miami Heat forward Myron Gardner. He reacted by charging toward Gardner in what he called a “cheap shot,” and both players tumbled to the floor near courtside seats in a tangle that nearly spilled deeper into the stands. Both were ejected. 

At first, these two incidents can be brushed off as players just losing their cool in the heat of the moment. But that is far from the case when looking deeper. Stewart has been a regular customer, having been suspended on five occasions in his six-year career. He charged at LeBron James in November 2021 and was suspended for two games. In February 2024, he punched Phoenix Suns Drew Eubanks in a pre-game parking-lot confrontation and received a three-game suspension, with the assault charge later dropped. In March 2025, he was involved in a Pistons-Timberwolves brawl where he put Naz Reid in a chokehold, earning two more games for that one. Just early last year, he received a flagrant two after delivering a forearm to Indiana Pacers big man Thomas Bryant, resulting in an automatic one-game sit.

When a player becomes that predictable in a violent way, it becomes a pattern that the league keeps managing instead of fixing. The Pippen Jr. dustup happened in a blowout loss with less than two minutes left to play. It was raw emotions boiling over as fans who paid to come watch basketball were just inches away, watching two grown men wrestling each other.

The NBA Faces Real Danger

As much as everyone appreciates players getting competitive, no one, especially the NBA, wants a repeat of the infamous “Malice in the Palace” brawl over 20 years ago. When Indiana’s Ron Artest went into the stands in that brawl, the league nearly lost its mainstream appeal. Then-commissioner David Stern tried his best to clean up the league by rewriting the rulebook to include automatic suspensions for players leaving the bench for a scuffle.

In all fairness, it followed through to the Adam Silver era, which has been described as “softer” by all accounts. But players have started to take advantage of that, and the past few seasons have been littered with these flashes of ugly moments. On March 30, 2025, during that Pistons-Timberwolves brawl, five players and two coaches were ejected after shoves turned into a full melee. Detroit, which seemed to be involved with every brawl, was in the center of yet another one.

This isn’t nostalgia for the “good old physical days.” Players are getting into these brawls knowing fully well the punishments that will follow. Pretending these are just “competitiveness” is a dangerous denial that the NBA cannot afford. Basketball has always rewarded toughness, but when “tough” means sprinting off the bench to throw hands or cheap-shotting a shooter from behind in garbage time, the league has essentially lost the plot. 

For the likes of the recent incidents, rewriting the rule book again may be the control measure Silver can apply to tone down the needless violence. Seven games and a small salary deduction seem like a slap in the wrist for repeat offenders like Stewart, or even someone like Pippen Jr., whose record had been spotless before the skirmish in Miami. Pippen Jr. and Gardner don’t look like they’ll be getting away with just fines or the same few-game suspension. The NBA has yet to hand out a punishment, but something hefty must — and will — be unleashed. 

The new media deal is just in its first year, and the NBA cannot lose its appeal when it is supposed to be marketing its reach to the global audience. Unchecked intensity will ruin the product, and it’s not even a case of whether the league is now “soft” or physical.